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Please see the Download section below for instructions on how to run the code.
This article is a response to the article Weak Events in C# by Daniel Grunwald.
EventBroker is a component that you can use to fire and receive notifications in your system.
The subscriber does not have to know the publisher. Both of them only need to know the EventTopic URI (a string uniquely identifying the EventTopic in the system). This facilitates building loosely coupled systems.
The subscriber defines on which thread the subscription handler is executed:
Publishers can restrict subscriptions to events to be synchronous or asynchronous.
Several publishers/subscribers can fire/handle the same EventTopic.
Publishers and subscribers are referenced by weak references which will not prevent them from being garbage collected – like in the normal event registration model.
Only publishers and subscribers that are registered on the same EventBroker are wired together when events are fired. Normally, you'll use a single EventBroker in your system that handles all event notifications. However, in special cases, it is useful to define a new EventBroker for a sub system. This gives you the possibility to define a scope for your event notification.
Publishers and subscribers can be named in a hierarchical way, and events can be global, to parents only, or to children only. Both publishers and subscribers can define the scope they publish to/receive from.
This EventBroker is based upon the EventBroker from the Composite (UI) Application Block from Microsoft. See the section Comparison to CAB EventBroker below, for differences.
Publish an event topic:
public class Publisher { [EventPublication("topic://EventBrokerSample/SimpleEvent")] public event EventHandler SimpleEvent; ///<summary>Fires the SimpleEvent</summary> public void CallSimpleEvent() { SimpleEvent(this, EventArgs.Empty); } }
Register the publisher with your event broker (you have to hold an instance of the event broker somewhere in your code). The sample assumes there is a service that holds the event broker instance for us:
EventBroker eb = Service.EventBroker; Publisher p = new Publisher(); eb.Register(p);
On registration of the publisher, the event broker inspects the publisher for published events (events with the EventPublication attribute).
Subscribe to an event topic:
public class Subscriber { [EventSubscription( "topic://EventBrokerSample/SimpleEvent", typeof(Handlers.Publisher))] public void SimpleEvent(object sender, EventArgs e) { // do something useful or at least funny } }
Register the subscriber with the event broker:
EventBroker eb = Service.EventBroker; Subscriber s = new Subscriber(); eb.Register(s);
The event broker will inspect the subscriber, on registration, for subscription to event topics (methods with the EventSubscription attribute).
If a publisher fires an event topic for that subscribers are registered, then the event broker will relay them to the subscribers by calling the subscription handler methods with the sender and Eventargs the publisher used to fire its event.
[EventPublication("Simple")] public event EventHandler SimpleEvent;
Note: CustomEventArgs has simply to be derived from EventArgs.
[EventPublication("CustomEventArgs")] public event EventHandler<CustomEventArguments> CustomEventArgs;
[EventPublication("Event1")] [EventPublication("Event2")] [EventPublication("Event3")] public event EventHandler MultiplePublicationTopics;
See the sections Comparison to CAB EventBroker/Subscription handler restrictions for more details.
[EventPublication("test", HandlerRestriction.Synchronous)] public event EventHandler AnEvent;
See the section Comparison to CAB EventBroker/Subscription handler restrictions for more details.
[EventPublication("test", HandlerRestriction.Asynchronous)] public event EventHandler AnEvent;
[EventSubscription("Simple", typeof(Handlers.Publisher)] public void SimpleEvent(object sender, EventArgs e) {}
[EventSubscription("CustomEventArgs"), typeof(Handlers.Publisher))] public void CustomEventArgs(object sender, CustomEventArgs e) {}
[EventSubscription("Event1", typeof(Handlers.Publisher))] [EventSubscription("Event2", typeof(Handlers.Publisher))] [EventSubscription("Event3", typeof(Handlers.Publisher))] public void MultipleSubscriptionTopics(object sender, EventArgs e) {}
The event broker creates a worker thread to execute the handler method on. The publisher can immediately continue processing.
[EventSubscription("Background", typeof(Handlers.Background))] public void BackgroundThread(object sender, EventArgs e) {}
Use this option if calling from a background worker thread to a user interface component that updates the user interface - no need for Control.Invoke(...) anymore.
[EventSubscription("UI", typeof(Handlers.UserInterface))] public void UI(object sender, EventArgs e) {}
Note that if you use the UserInterface handler, then you have to make sure that you register the subscriber on the user interface thread. Otherwise, the EventBroker won't be able to switch to the user interface thread, and will throw an exception.
The same as above, but the publisher is not blocked until the subscriber has processed the event.
[EventSubscription("UIAsync", typeof(Handlers.UserInterfaceAsync))] public void UI(object sender, EventArgs e) {}
Event topics can be fired directly on the EventBroker without the need of registering a publisher. This comes in handy whenever you need to fire an event topic from an object that lives only very shortly.
A good example for such a scenario is a scheduled job execution. At the scheduled time, an instance of a job class is instantiated and executed. It would be cumbersome to register this instance, fire the event, and unregister it again - it's far easier to fire the event directly on the EventBroker:
eventBroker.Fire("topic", sender, eventArgs);
Sometimes it is necessary to limit the scope an event is published to. This can be achieved in two different ways:
Subscribers can only listen to events of publishers that are registered on the same event broker. Therefore, an event broker automatically builds a scope.
This is the easiest solution to have several event handling scopes in your application, and should always be preferred. However, sometimes, you need more control over scopes within the objects on one single event broker. This scenario is described in the following section.
Publishers and subscribers can be named by implementing the INamedItem interface. This interface provides a single property:
string EventBrokerItemName { get; }
This allows identifying an object within the event broker whereas the publication and subscription attributes are always bound to the class.
The naming is hierarchical by using the same scheme as namespaces:
Now, a publisher can define the scope it wants to publish the event to, by defining a scope in the publication attribute:
[EventPublication("Topic")] public event EventHandler PublishedGlobally; [EventPublication("Topic", typeof(ScopeMatchers.PublishToParents)] public event EventHandler PublishedToParentsAndTwinsOnly; [EventPublication("Topic", typeof(ScopeMatchers.PublishToChildren)] public event EventHandler PublishedToChildrenAndTwinsOnly;
The first event is a global event that all subscribers can receive. The second event is only passed to subscribers that are parents or twins of the publisher. The third event is only passed to subscribers that are children or twins of the publisher.
A subscriber can define the scope it wants to receive events from accordingly:
[EventSubscription("Topic", typeof(Handlers.Publisher)] public void GlobalHandler(object sender, EventArgs e) [EventSubscription( "Topic", typeof(Handlers.Publisher), typeof(ScopeMatchers.SubscribeToParents)] public void ParentHandler(object sender, EventArgs e) [EventSubscription( "Topic", typeof(Handlers.Publisher), typeof(ScopeMatchers.SubscribeToChildren)] public void ChildrenHandler(object sender, EventArgs e)
The first subscription is a global subscription that will handle all the events passed to it. The second subscription will only be called when a parent of the subscriber is firing the event. The third subscription will only be called when a child of the subscriber is firing the event.
Twins (different objects with the same name) are handled specially. A twin is always a parent and child of its twin, and will therefore will always receive all the events from its twin.
As stated in the Background section, my EventBroker is based on the EventBroker from CAB (Composite UI Application Block) from the Practices and Patterns group of Microsoft.
This section describes the differences.
The bbv.Common EventBroker can be used standalone. You can use it anywhere in your projects you need notification, without any framework constraints as CAB would require.
bbv.Common EventBroker
I tried to implement the EventBroker in a way that errors get visible as soon as possible. I will give you some examples of what that means:
Note: this feature is only available in the version hosted on Sourceforge.net (see the section Download) and not in the attached solution (it's too new ;-) ).
We had the problem that some publisher has to be sure that all subscribers handle its event synchronously. For example, if you publish a cancel event, providing a way for all subscribers to cancel the current operation. Only if no subscriber sets the Cancel property on the CancelEventArgs to true can the publisher proceed with its operation. Therefore, the publisher has to restrict all subscriptions on this event to be synchronous:
If a subscriber registers an asynchronous handler for this event, then an exception is thrown. Note that the exception is thrown at registration time, and not when the event is fired. This simplifies writing consistent code a lot.
Furthermore, a publisher can restrict subscription handlers to be asynchronous because the publisher does not want to be blocked:
The EventBroker of bbv.Common is quite chatty in terms of log messages. This enables you to see when a publisher fires an event, how they are routed to subscribers, how they are handled, and which exceptions occurred.
Note: bbv.Common uses log4net to log messages. That means, you can configure the level of messages logged for each component.
I replaced the enum ThreadOption with extensible handlers to define the way the event is handled (synchronously, asynchronously).
You can implement your own scope matchers to provide an event hierarchy that suits your needs instead of specifying a scope with an enum.
We'll have a look at the internals on a next update of this article. Until then, please refer to the source code available in the download.
The download at the top of this article contains three Visual Studio 2008 projects:
The bbv.Common.EventBroker is part of a larger library containing some other cool components, which can be found here.
This download is just a stripped down version. To try it out, open the solution, set the start up project to bbv.Common.EventBroker.Sample, and hit F5.
Note that the version attached to this article is not the latest available. Be sure to check the Sourceforge page for the latest release.
Note that the bbv.Common.EventBroker is licensed under Apache License 2.0, but because the EventBroker contains parts of the CAB from Microsoft, additional license restrictions have to be applied, see file headers in the source code for details.
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Apache License, Version 2.0
<EventPublication(EventBrokerTopics.TimeForScheduleItemReceive)> _ Public Event ScheduleItemReceive()
General News Suggestion Question Bug Answer Joke Praise Rant Admin
Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.


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Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: CLOSED
Small business owners who work long hours. If these folks were white and Christian the GOP would be all over this. But they are not so we have this. Ah, the hypocrisy!
In any case, gentle readers, do not be reluctant about forwarding this post to any/all elected officials— be they municipal, state or Federal— so as to make it crystal fucking clear to them that we— not simply the Yemeni-American Community— have a problem here. Solidarity is what gets shit done folks…
(Taken February 2, 2017)
Greenpoint Photos Du Jour: 958 Manhattan Avenue
Filed under: 11222, Bloomblight, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Hooliganism, Stuff That Makes Miss Heather Happy, Urban Artifact
At long last our fair city has gotten a long overdue dose of the white stuff (snow). It is a perfect day to curl up with a book and perhaps take a tipple. However I would advise you, gentle readers, to please do so indoors.
P.S.: Note that our prodigal Teddy seems to be also enjoying a fair number of books. Perhaps this lot has become a library of sorts? If so, I have a humble suggestion as to whom it should be dedicated!
Crosstown Local Photo Du Jour: Nassau Avenue
Filed under: 11222, Crosstown Local, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Wow
Taken January 15, 2016.
The Word On The Street: Fun
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Stuff That Makes Miss Heather Happy, The Natives Are Getting Restless, The Word On The Street
As discovered on the premises of the former Harte & Company Plastics Factory January 15th, 2016.
The Word On The Street: Season's Greetings From Second Avenue
Filed under: 10009, 11211, 11222, 11249, East Village, East Village Manhattan, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Williamsburg, Williamsburg Brooklyn
As spotted today just around the corner from the premises of the 9th Precinct. Closing on a related note…
- Free Williamsburg has seen fit to publish a handy map of the establishments in Williamsburg which will be participating in this year's SantaCon event. One establishment offers mechanical bull rides. Drunk Santa Testosteronathon + mechanical bull rides = culling the herd.
- E.V. Grieve has excellent coverage regarding the "back and forth" between a number of elected officials and Norman Seigel, SantaCon's hired attorney. I encourage any/all north Brooklyn residents to give it a read as I for one found the coalition of elected officials who saw fit to sign this letter almost as interesting as the ones who did not. Inasmuch as I can tell (and by all means correct me if I am wrong), the only signee who represents north Brooklyn (READ: Greenpoint/Williamsburg) is Daniel Squadron. This of course begs a number of questions. It should be noted the Brooklyn Borough President's name is not to be found either. Not that I find this surprising, mind you. I don't.
New York Shitty Pay Phone Du Jour: Al Fresco Hot Desking edition
Filed under: 10009, 10012, East Village, East Village Manhattan, Street Furniture
Taken December 10, 2015.
Next Week: Follow Up Town Hall Public Meeting
Via a tipster who clearly did not notice or elected to ignore the disclaimer/unenforceable legalese at the end of Ms. Bloodgood's informative email.
Next Monday, December 7th at 6:00 pm, there will be a follow-up meeting regarding (citing the above-depicted email):
…regarding Northern Greenpoint. When we meet in September we heard from many of you about your complaints and concerns and we have been working hard, trying to bring the community together to address the issues presented. Since our last meeting we've met with the Precinct and the Department of Homeless Services as well as Homelife Services (the shelter operators at 66 Clay) and the Parks Department Security Patrol to continue to press for a safe and healthy Greenpoint Community.
Our goal is to keep our community safe for the families that live, work and play here and also to continue to help those in need during difficult times we must work together as a community. So please join us on Monday evening at the Polish Slavic Center on Java Street to let us know how things have gone since we met a few months ago. How has the situation changed? Are things better? Are they worse? Are there any glaring omissions in what the response has been? Anything new we don't know about?
To make sure everyone is aware of some steps that have been taken since we last met:
· the 94th precinct made a number of drug arrests in October
· DHS brought in their new security team
· Homelife Services has been working on its community building interactions
· Parks Department has stepped up their park patrols
All of this is good progress and we thank everyone that has been a part of those actions in this process. In order to continue to build on this progress, come out and join us next week; we need to continue to hear from you.
What: North Greenpoint Community Follow-Up Town Hall
When: Monday December 7th 6pm
Where: Polish Slavic Center 176 Java Street (downstairs)
Let me know if you have any questions or want to help contribute to the evening's agenda. Please SHARE this notice, my list isn't that big!
I did not attend September's meeting. I had my reasons. Pretty damned good ones. However, instead of simply hitting "reply all" to my tipster's via email, I felt know hitting "reply all" via this blog is a much better, or at least more efficient, use of my time. Here it goes. I have omitted the names of certain people because those people may not want to be named and/or associated with my person. Enjoy!
I second (excised #1): thanks (excised #2)!
A few thoughts:
1. I found the mention of drug arrests rather amusing. Here's why. On November 6th at noon I got a bang trim at Hair, which is located on Manhattan Avenue between Green and Huron. While I was sitting in the chair (which is situated right in front), my hairdresser and I watched on as dudes conducted "business"/conferred right outside said window. It really does not get more "in your face" than that. She told me this had been going on since she opened that morning (~9:00 am). When I left I hit the Lorven Pharmacy a door or two down. The "ringleader" of this operation barked at one of his minions/henchmen (clients???) to meet him and I quote "at the hotel". I took a photo of him. (Excised #2) has it. Anyway, this guy was really brazen. He "worked" this end of the neighborhood and I saw him ply his trade by the McDonalds. I have not seen him lately. Makes me wonder if he was "collared". What about 177 Huron Street?
It seems to be common knowledge this place is a hub of "activity". Heroin. Look this building up on the Department of Buildings "Building Information System". It is quite something.
2 "The drug situation" in general, some things I learned over my "baggie" project over the summer. Baggie Project: simply put, I canvassed Greenpoint, primarily its parks, and monitored/counted/collected drug baggies. This I did for ~6 weeks ending at/around 9/1/2015.
- A slew of them were found at Transmitter. Once I found 20 in one canvass. I didn't put it together until I brought this up with a friend of mine here. She's a parent and as such takes her children to this park. She once had to take a baggie away from her son. He thought it was colorful/pretty and picked it up. She has found them on the premises of the playground. I have as well.ANYWAY, she also attended a lot of the children's movie nights there over the summer and in this capacity noticed a number of younger, non-parents attending who elected partake of "substances" (smoking joints, who knows what else). I will put it this way: although my "study" was hardly "scientific"/"structured", I DID find more baggies after they showed movies.
- By far the worst, WORST place (in terms of numbers) is the skate park at McCarren. Methinks I found ~40 in one walk-through.
- The area behind the pool is also bad.
- I found baggies in the Abate Playground as well. Um, hell-O.
- McGolrick is also abysmal, but is that really surprising? I'll go into McGolrick later.
Anyway, what I am getting at is exactly who is being targeted in these drug arrests? I ask this question because it is pretty obvious to me that (at least on the "user" end) it is not just the usual suspects. I mean, really, isn't the skate park intended for use by children? If so, why did I find so much "paraphernalia"?
Yes, I see they have stepped up park patrols here. I have actually seen this (here) with my own eyes. However, I am not so keen on/satisfied with this being treated/addressed on a "north Greenpoint" (versus, by implication, "south" Greenpoint) basis. The problems here are pretty much the same as they are there.
3. Drugs & McGolrick Park:
Like I said: it is bad. Is this surprising? No. Something I observed is most of the drug baggies and needles were to be found in the outlying areas. Areas which I am guessing are not in view of the security cameras installed at the pavilion. Think: mostly along Nassau, Driggs and Monitor Street. ESPECIALLY Monitor Street. I found a drug exchange hypodermic needle along the Nassau Avenue side within eye shot of the playground. I found a number of (what I learned to be) disposable needle tips along Driggs and just around the corner on Monitor. Right across the street from PS 110. That one netted me a trip to the emergency room because I picked it up and was pricked by it. This came to pass 8/26.
Was this an intelligent thing to do? Pick stuff up in a park? No. However:
- I saw and have seen a number of people run around with their dogs, let their kids wander around (and in so doing see a small piece of pink plastic not knowing it sported a used needle), lay on the grass (SHUDDER),
- The needle tip I was pricked by is designed for, but not necessarily always used for, the dispensation of insulin. Unless you knew what it was or (as I did) ended up researching and finding out, well…
Let's just say it could have just as easily happened to someone else. Very easily. At least a used hypodermic needle (as cringe worthy as it is) is pretty easy to see, identify and therefore avoid. "Disposable needle tips" not so much.
Were these (I found four) used for illegal drug use? For insulin? Or did someone simply dump them there? Actually the thought of someone dumping medical waste in a park is what I find the most disturbing— and I am not so quick to rule that out. I have seen medical waste dumped hereabouts before (albeit on a derelict construction site, just off McCarren in "Williamsburg").Which brings me to…
4. "…Our goal is to keep our community safe for the families that live, work and play here…"
I would suggest that one step, safety-wise, would be suspending "community/volunteer clean-ups" of public parks altogether. Inasmuch as our Parks Department, local parks conservancy group (they are more or less one and the same) and park-specific groups may want to cry "poor" and try to spin services which should be provided by the city into a "community building event" (FUN FOR ALL! BRING THE KIDS!) it is what it is. Forcing the community to do work which they are already entitled to (as citizens), not qualified to do and endangering said community in the process. That's what (in my opinion) the McGolrick Park Alliance did when they hosted a community clean-up event not terribly long ago. They were made aware "sharps" were found there. (Excised #2) saw to that at my behest. I was not exactly in a "place" to take it up myself when I got home from the Emergency Room. Can you blame me? However, that evening I uploaded photos, made a map of where I found the needle/needle tips, uploaded and blasted them to friends. (Excised #2), of course, being one of them.
My emergency room bill came in at just shy of $15,000. Thankfully I am insured so my/our "co-pay" was a mere $50.00. I am not sure what the follow-up visits with a physician, blood tests (not a fun affair when needles and blood freak you out) and one full month of HIV retrovirals cost. The co-pays for the doctor visits were $30.00 each. I do not think I want to know. I recently found out, after about 2 1/2 months of waiting (and waiting is all you can do— you have to wait until two months after "exposure" for a conclusive test) that I am okay. No HIV, no Hepatitis C, no Tetanus, and, because it can be prevented "post-exposure", via vaccinations, Hepatitis B. You get three rounds of shots for that one. My last will be in late February/early March 2016.
5. Closing thoughts
Some time ago I worked at a crime victims board, albeit in not in New York. Every state has a crime victim board/commission. Many are (in some part, sometimes mostly) funded by "VOCA" (the "Victims of Violent Crime Act") or "VAWA" (Violence Against Women Act"). Their purpose is to (keeping it simple) pay for medical expenses accrued/ongoing as the result of being a victim of a violent crime for people who do not have any form of "insurance". I saw a lot of rape cases and handled many a phone call from a "client" who had a collection agency hired to collect payment from (let's face facts) her/her family because the agency I worked for did not pay the hospital/"care provider" in a timely fashion.
I am guessing, predicated on the previous life experience, if someone who was uninsured/under-insured hereabouts (I am guessing quite a few) had undergone my experience (which was not at the behest of a violent crime, thankfully), he/she would end up having to sue the city for "negligence" and, in the interim/upon getting a "settlement", field a lot of calls from collection agency. A whole lotta unnecessary grief/insult to injury. And that's only if the person actually knew he/she was pricked by a used needle tip (as opposed to not knowing and later finding out he/she is sick and not knowing why/how).
We have serious problems here. Simply trouble-shooting one area and/or one group of people ain't gonna fix it.
Get my drift?
Part of me wants to attend this meeting and bring along a few "visual aids": a jar with a few items ("sharps") I found at McGolrick before I ended up getting "pricked" and a 6″ diameter snow globe filled with drug baggies (~180 total) "harvested"/"locally-sourced" from Greenpoint. Mostly from public parks.
However, I suspect my "locally-sourced""objects" and what I have to say would be inappropriate.
*On the upshot, I did have some very big "takeaways" from my "scare":
*It forced me to look at how even as a child (pretty damned far removed from the 1980's AIDS epidemic) I was quietly inculcated/"educated" to think those with HIV/AIDS somehow "brought it upon themselves". Something "shameful". Not that I ever thought I was "that kind of person" (READ: bigot) who would preach to that effect on street corners. I wasn't. However…
*sometimes the worst things you learn about yourself are the (most) insidious. Thought processes, thinking, you never really thought about. Until when faced with the possibility, however unlikely, that "you" may very well become one of "them". In this respect I am very grateful to have had this "life lesson".
*HIV and Hepatitis C are no longer death sentences. This is certainly progress, but it ain't success/acceptable.
*Life can, does and will go on regardless of the results of one's viral load tests.
This one goes out to Tim Murphy. His tome was the only one I wanted to read about Charlie Sheen "coming out" regarding his HIV infection. I read it while waiting to have my (hopefully last) viral load test. Otherwise, the doctor/"infectious disease specialist" I had during my "scare" was the best. I highly recommend him (although I hope I do not have to). Very caring and understanding. Above all when I told him that the "parks group" for the park wherein I was pricked elected to have a community/volunteer clean-up anyway, well, the look on his face was priceless. I should have taken a photo of it.
New York Shitty Street Seating Du Jour: Plush & Purple
Filed under: 11222, Greenpoint, Greenpoint Brooklyn, Greenpoint Magic, Street Furniture
Taken December 3, 2015.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Now entering phase 3 of Oliva's Master Blends cigars.Every year, the Oliva family cultivates a limited amount of fine tobaccos to create a rare, one-time-run of super premium cigars. The blend of this cigar is based solely on the leaves harvested, which often results in an entirely new cigar from year to year. Normally, these cigars have been privately reserved for 'family use' only. The scarcity of leaves acquired for this line, the Oliva Master Blends, has prevented the cigar from being released to the public. But, thanks to improved growing methods and quality control, yield now allows us to enjoy the fruit of the Oliva family's labor, with a limited number of cigars produced each year.Good news, the Oliva Family has announced the third release of the Master Blends Series - a limited edition cigar featuring the finest tobaccos cultivated within recent harvests. Available in 4 choice sizes, the Master Blends III cigar (MB3) is very limited in quantities and designed to cater the distinguished palate. MB3 is constructed with a luscious sungrown broadleaf wrapper leaf and a Nicaraguan blend of Habano-seed, ligero tobaccos. The result is a beautiful, dark brown cigar that's bursting with complex, balanced flavor that satisfies the palate with a rich, bold, full-bodied finish.Inventory is extremely limited.MB3 received an outstanding, '92' rating. Here's what the experts had to say: "A pressed cigar with an oily, chocolate brown wrapper. A good draw imparts a good balance of earthy, creamy flavors. The spicy finish hints of brown sugar."
Got one in a sampler and fired it up tonight. Started out with a pepper blast, and then the flavor all but died. The ash was loose, as if it was full of short fillers. 2 re-lights, and five touchups. Maybe I got a dud, but it was just ok at best. Sure not worth $9.00. Did burn for an hour and a half though.
Review: When they say "full strength" they don't understand what "full" means...I felt like Martin Sheen in his hotel room in Apocalypse Now! I was feeling myself get weaker and Charlie getting stronger. Surprised I didn't end up naked on the porch punching my bay window! HOLY STRONG! AWESOME! Great construction (another box pressed beauty) with an easy, even draw and a ton of smoke. Only took about 25 minutes to smoke (maybe cause I was pulling on it like I was siphoning gas). Couldn't fill the tank fast enough! A real treat. Complex, full mouth flavor that leaves your lips tingling with a solid finish. Conclusion: Do not drive heavy machinery after smoking this rocket. Plan on lying down on the bed and throwing a foot on the floor for an anchor. Keeper?: Affirmative! PS: Think of this as a really, really good scotch. Explosion of flavor with a warm surge follow. Good stuff but not an everyday smoke unless you live in a coal mine. Smoke up Johnnie!
....This, my friends, is by and large one of the most wonderful cigars I have EVER wrapped my lips around. IMO, this easily goes head to head with Padron and for a fraction of the cost...please do me a favor, don't buy any....leaves more for me!
OMG...MY NEW FAVORITE...NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! If you want flavor to the max this one is for true...the cigar 4 u...smokem if u gottem! If not call your #1 cigar "hotline" CI & gettem quick!
I must say with honesty that I am not much of an Oliva fan, their cigars that I have had in the past were good, but never really "knocked my socks off". The Master Blend 3, however, is an entirely different animal. As I am sitting here smoking it while I write I am thoroughly impressed. I was given the Robusto 5x50 size when I mentioned that I wasn't a fan at a local b&m. As I was paying for my cigars the guy at the shop grabbed one and said I had to try it. It has definitely changed my impression of Oliva and is gong to make me consider trying more of their lines. This cigar is smooth, feels great, burns well, and the wrapper has a feel that is almost fabric like when touched. Aside from the excellent construction, it tastes even better than it looks or feels. I am now on the last third of this cigar and I am sad to see it end.
Nothing special about this cigar. No "wow" factor. Just smooth tobacco taste. (5/10)
If your looking for a good cigar, this is it!
The MB3 was one of the cigars that was on my "must try" list this year. I was able to score 10 of these on a 1 day deal in robusto. Beautiful cigar, very typical of Oliva. In fact if your an Oliva fan, then you will enjoy this smoke. Fist half had a lot of spice and pepper, then smoothed out after that. Reminds me a lot of the Serie O Maduro with a sweeter aroma. Construction and draw were perfect!
Review 2 of the Robusto. After sitting in my humidor for a few months at 65-70% and constant temp of 73 degrees I smoked my second sample. From light to nub all I got was straight med-full tobacco taste. No creaminess, no flavors. Very uninspiring smoke.
Oh boy...this one is a treat and has made my top 5 list! The taste is a mixture of subtle complexities that draw you in and don't disappoint. I was able to snatch up 30 of these bad boys in make a deal, and what a deal I got! MB3 is a work of blending genius! Oliva...Great Job! I look forward to savoring more of these real soon!
Very potent. Not an every day or any time stick. When these go on sale I get a few.
....uneven burn , hot, flavor so overdone....
This cigar packs a nice nicotine punch. Wow! First time I've gotten this light headed in a while. From 2006 and tasty as ever. Some burn problems but it is windy outside. A very refined taste. Well done again oliva!
Snagged a couple bundles of robustos on one of Joe's Daily deals a couple weeks ago..... let them rest in the humidor for a week before trying one this morning, and WOW!! I've smoked G's, O's, and V's, but never the Master Blends.... these are to Oliva what Tatuaje Cojonus are to Garcia. Fantastic draw, burn, and flavor.... darn near an hour and a half of blissfulness, right to the finger-tip burning end. Don't know that I'd pay the full asking price, but if I ever see these on the Daily Deal again, there'll be a few more boxes worth headed my way.
There has only been two other cigars that have knocked my socks off. This Master Blend is exceptional and has become a mainstay in my humidors....I plan to add more of the Oliva's as it just blows me away. And the wife likes the scent of it too!
If you want to have a great cigar, smoke an Oliva Master Blends III. By far, one of my new favorite cigars. Peppery start, which I love, and then just a phenomenal pull and flavor throughout the entire stoge. After trying with my friends, I already had to order my second round. We all enjoyed!
This has become my new favorite cigar! I simply can't say enough good things about this stick. I have purchased 3 boxes of the Robusto size and hope that will tide me over for awhile....
This is my favorite cigar. Top choice. And the only Oliva that I actually smoke (go figure?). Rich, earthy and leathery texture. It is not for the faint of heart. I beg you to try this full bodied beast one after reading this.
This is really one of my new favorite cigars. Right up there with my box of Padron 64's. This is a 94-95 smoke, perfect draw, burn, nice subtle flavor changes throughout. This is a true Nicaraguan Puro at it's best that you will smoke to the nub. Best Oliva yet.
The master blend is alot like the San Latano Oval, overwhelming. Smooth, but dark and decadent, this is a sit down cigar. Perfectly balanced and slow burning, it has that extra something that makes you savor in intervals. I had to buy a box before I finished the first of my five pack. A step above the Oliva V.
This is right near the top of my favorite smokes list. And for good reason. This smooth smoking, well made stick has great taste, great draw and flawless construction. I prefer it to the Oliva V, another of my favorite smokes. I'll not likely find my box without some of these present.
I received this cigar in a sampler 5 pack, and found it to be a good cigar. It is bold in flavor, and doesn't lack in weakness for those who like a stronger smoke. The wrapper is a dark brown in color that contrast the white ash in a very pleasing manner. It burns very even, and a taste that would please most individuals. The only negative thing I would have to say has to do with the draw was not as well as I like, and I smoked the cigar within two days of receiving it. All in all, I enjoyed the cigar, and felt it is one worth writing about.
Delicious,rich,full,complex,MB3-torpedo-IMO-high 90's,thanks CI!bravo Oliva!
Wow, what a treat! I received this cigar in a promotional 5 pack, I am absolutely amazed. Nice box pressed shape, dark oily wrapper, smooth even draw, and the taste is great! I actually think the taste got better the closer I got to the nub. This is the type of some you lick your lips after taking a puff and the oils give off a brilliant flavor. Needless to say, as long as i can get my hands on them, I will have a supply in the humidor. i give them a 94-95
I agree w/ Cigar Aficionado about the brown sugar flavor in Oliva Master Blends III. There is also honey sweetness and aroma as well. This is a very balanced cigar w/ nary a bit of harshness.
I have had a few (almost a lot) of these Cigars. I really like these, but they lack the creaminess (word?) of the Master II's, but makes up for it in the long run with a strong finish. I also miss the laser etched symbol up near the head of the cigar. Well worth the price for a boutique cigar.
Well it is no wonder that these are on backorder most of the time. This is a winner blend. The cigar is stong and perfectly balanced with no burn or draw issues. There is not much else anyone can say about a cigar at this level.
All i can say is......WOW!!!!! Everything the hype says it is. Get some! Get some now!!!! So gooooooooooood, lol. I got one in a promotional CI deal for a buck!!!! OMG I'm in heaven right now. Do yourself a favor people.
I just purchased one of these for Father's Day and couldn't wait. Burned a Toro size in a little over 2 HOURS! Absolutely one of the finest smokes out there. I am an Opus X, God of Fire, Padron 64, or Davidoff guy when it comes to splurging on an expensive cigar. This one just moved up to the top of the list! Oliva is bringing it lately.
So this is my Favorite Cigar! I'll admit it's a bit expensive but It's a killer smoke! I URGE you to atleast try it in a sampler! The day it's on the Joe's Daily deal I'll buy them all...
The cigar is fairly smooth and tasty. It had some burn problems, though. It could have been the humid June night air here in Louisiana that affected the burn. I had to keep relighting it. I'd score it an 87.


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Chely Wright Shares First Photo of 'Baby A'
Chely Wright is pregnant, expecting twins this summer with wife Lauren Blitzer-Wright. As is the case with expectant moms, Wright, an active Twitter user, shared a photo of 'Baby A' and his or her foot via social media. Aww.
The singer, who made headlines a few years ago when she came out as a lesbian to the country community, posted a happy tweet about her growing babies. Well, in this case, one of her growing babies. "Isn't that the cutest thing ever!? RT"@lulublitzer: Ultrasound heaven. Baby A foot," Wright tweeted, responding to a post from Blitzer.
There are few things cuter than proud moms-to-be! We look forward to the singer sharing photos of 'Baby B' and even more parts of 'Baby A' as the twins grow and develop, both in the womb and outside of it.
Wright, 42, and Blitzer-Wright, 31, will be first-time parents when they welcome their twins later this year. The babies are due in July, but they are expected to arrive early, as is often the case with multiple births.


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Search for Jobs and Post Your Résumé with CTHires
Reemployment Portal
Search for Connecticut Employers - Search for Connecticut Employers by industry, geography, occupation or company name.
State Job and Examination Announcements - Department of Administrative Services and links to other agencies.
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Job Fairs - Information About Upcoming DOL Job Fairs.
Employer Recruitments at American Job Center Offices - Dates and times when recruiters will be in offices
Connecticut Job and Career Connection - An Extensive Source of Local Information About Jobs and Careers in Connecticut.
American Job Center Jobseeker Referral Services - Services to help individuals connect with opportunities.
Tips for Jobseekers - Interviewing, Résumés, Cover Letters, Job and Career Fairs, Students.
ELAWS - Employment Laws Assistance For Workers and Small Businesses - Federal Department of Labor.
Free Career Related Workshops and Seminars - Information useful for job search and workplace skills.
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Business & Employment Changes Announced in the News Media - Publication lists start-ups, expansions, staff reductions, and layoffs reported by the media, both current and future.
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Trademarks for Entrepreneurs, With Secret Lawyer Tips and Illustrations Enclosed
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Author: Megan V. Cook
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Book Description
Is This Trademark Ebook Guide the Right Book for You? As a small business owner of a law firm, I am a major "do-it-yourselfer." Yes, I understand the urge to file a trademark on your own, and so this ebook will tell you what you need to know in order to do just that. This is a compact offering of the trademark procedures you can take for your business, blog or brand, along with indispensable, easy to consume information about trademark laws. Before we begin, the phrase "get trademarked" as used throughout this book means the process of getting your mark registered as a trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Please note that this United States Patent and Trademark Office will be referred to as the "USPTO." We understand that going to the USPTO website to file your own trademark can be overwhelming. Where do you start? What all do you need to know in order to get a trademark registered? Here are the 10 things you absolutely must know ...


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Hashtags As Labeled Rooms Where Communities Meet
Last time we spoke about hashtags as labeled sections on a bulletin board. This is a good analogy when you think about disseminating messages that you want to draw attention to. But the bulletin board analogy doesn't reflect the "social" aspect of social networks.
As a matter of fact, hashtags aren't just a fundamental tool to broadcast information to the right audience; they're also a great tool to find and meet people who share your interests - both personal and professional ones. Among these people you can find those that can help you extend your influence through their own larger audiences, therefore further amplifying and endorsing your message.
To visualize this point of view, a much more fitting analogy are the rooms of a club.
It's no coincidence that the inspiration for adding hashtags to Twitter came from chatrooms. When Twitter was small and users were few, having genuine conversations was much more prevalent than it is today. Chris Messina, the inventor of the hashtag, suggested to adopt this convention exactly to create "rooms" where you could discuss specific subjects even with people you didn't know yet.
This helped creating many interest-based communities. Hashtags allowed you to discover like-minded people and then connect with them. People who had something interesting to share could easily build a following and meaningful relationships. With the gargantuan size of today's Twitter - and that of the other major social networks - this is a much rarer event, but not all is lost!
Room Types: The Public Square
The biggest rooms - the most popular hashtags - don't look like rooms at all. They rather resemble big and noisy squares with hordes of people incessantly coming and going, and all of them wanting attention!
In these rooms/squares there is usually very little sense of community, if at all, and, if you asked who are the leaders/influencers, you would mostly come out with some out-of-reach celebrities that from time to time come to grace the onlookers with their hyper-amplified messages and maybe get a buzz going for a few hours.
For most marketers and communicators, finding meaningful connections in these places is really a hit-and-miss game - with much more misses than hits. Try your chance if you want, but our suggestion is to focus on much better playing fields.
Most viral hashtags, hashtags about current world events, and very general interest subjects generate Public Square "rooms".
Room Types: The Specialty Room
Some subjects, like for example data visualization techniques or embroidery, have an inherently smaller audience. But also the subjects with the broadest appeal, like music or news, have more specialized sub-subjects of various niche levels; think classical music or Vatican City local news.
It is at this smaller - and especially niche - level that healthy online communities can still form around one or more specific hashtags, forming their own specialty rooms.
These thriving communities have their own unwritten rules, and, most often, some widely recognized reference points - their top influencers. Here you can also build your own significant, or at least useful, relationships.
This will usually require a healthy investment in time, resource and budget too, but if you find the right hashtags and communities, it will give you the highest long-term return. We'll go into more details in future lessons, but the general process can be summarized in these steps:
- Find some right-sized and well functioning communities in your field of interest, and their rooms/hashtags
- Find their influencers, study them and learn the unwritten rules and conventions
- Participate and add value to the community, without focusing too much on yourself and your message
- Strike significant relationship, always keeping an eye on the top influencers that are within your reach, but without focusing only on them
Room Types: The Branded Room
Until now, we focused mostly on industry/interest hashtags, which usually come from the bottom up in a completely organic way. A different case is the campaign hashtag, purposefully created and steered by some organization or business. This brings us to the branded room.
The biggest difference between these rooms and the former ones is that here we have somebody who worked hard to invite people to their room and keep them engaged. And somebody who, if successful, is officially recognized by most members as the leader of the community. Somebody who also had a specific goal in mind for this community.
The situation that interests us now is when you're not the one who built the room. So, is it possible to create meaningful relationships here? The short answer is: Yes, if the room still resembles the specialty room we talked about before, with a thriving community, and if your goals aren't in direct conflict with the creators' ones. The same process can still apply.
But what if your goals are conflicting with the creators'? Well, depending on the situation, you could either find other rooms… or you could try to hijack it. But that is another story and shall be told another time.
And before we finish, we'll quickly mention two special cases of branded hashtags/rooms: the event hashtag, and the Twitter chat. For different reasons, these two cases are very relevant, and we'll talk about these in the lesson about the hashtags lifecycles.
Congratulations ! You have finished the introductory part of our Advanced Marketing course. We're still writing the next lessons, which will be more practical how-tos about various common tasks for social media marketers.
But you don't need to wait if you want to apply the concepts we explained. You can start from our Labs, which include guided tours and detailed guides to, among other things:
- Automatically get hashtags suggestions from the "sweet spot", in our My Users
- Analyze a hashtag and find it's top influencers to connect to in our My Hashtags


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BitBake recipe
From Openmoko
Contents |
BitBake is a build tool for executing tasks and managing metadata.It was inspired by Portage, the package management system used by the Gentoo Linux distribution. BitBake is the basis of the OpenEmbedded project, which is being used to build and maintain Openmoko.
For the user guide of Bitbake, please visit the site : [1]
Bitbake Recipe
The literal meaning of a recipe is that it is a direction to making something. Similarly, a bitbake recipe tells bitbake how to build a particular package X. It includes all the package dependencies, sources to fetch the source code from, configuration, compilation, build, install and remove instructions. Apart from this, it also stores the meta data for the package in certain standard variables.
Some Standard Variables in a Bitbake recipe
1. DESCRIPTION = "This application will print hello world on your screen" : Gives the description of the application that you are developing
2. AUTHOR = "Deepank Gupta" : Gives name of the author of the package. Similar variables can be defined such as HOMEPAGE, LICENSE, SECTION etc.
3. PN = "Helloworld" : This specifies the package name of the package excluding the version number of the package. The version number is specified by PV and revision number by PR variable.
4. DEPENDS = "X Y Z" : With regard to dependencies, it expects the .bb to define a DEPENDS variable, which contains a space seperated list of "package names". In the above example the package is dependent on X, Y and Z packages. The run-time dependencies of a package are specified by the variable RDEPENDS.
5. PROVIDES += "virtual/package" : This specifies the functionality provided by the bitbake recipe.
6. PREFERRED_VERSION_a = "1.1" : This specifies the preferred version of a package named a. This is used if there are more than 1 versions of a same package such as a-1.1.bb and a-1.2.bb
7. SRC_URI = "file://myhelloworld.c" : This specifies the source address from where to fetch the source files. It can fetch from local disk using file:// , websites using http:// , cvs and svn using cvs:// and svn:// and others like ftp, git etc.
8. S = "${WORKDIR}/trunk" This might be used in order to specify which folder our package extracts to. Normally it looks like ${WORKDIR}/${PN}_${PV} if the package was generated by the autotools - which is the value this variable automatically points to when not set by the receipe. In the case this example shows it points to a folder named trunk - which might be useful for a reciepe that builds the last version from SVN.
Some variables specific to Openmoko recipes
$WORKDIR = $OMDIR/local/packages/<application directory> $bindir = $OMDIR/build/tmp/work/armv4t-linux/<application directory>/image/usr/bin $docir = $OMDIR/build/tmp/work/armv4t-linux/<application directory>/image/usr/share/doc $D = $OMDIR/build/
Standard tasks in a recipe
1. do_fetch : Fetch the source files from the URI given in the SRC_URI.
2. do_unpack : Unpack the source files into WORKDIR.
3. do_patch : Patch the source code, if necessary, before configuration.
4. do_configure : for doing the configuration
5. do_compile : To compile the program(s) using a compiler specified by CC variable.
6. do_build : To build the package including its build-time dependencies.
7. do_install : To install the package on the filesystem i.e copy the binaries where required.
You can define your own tasks (as many as you like) which can also be python functions. eg.
do_mytask () { echo "Hello, world!" }
You can list all tasks for a given recipe with 'bitbake -c listtasks <package_name>'.
For packages that are built with autotools (automake, autoconf, etc), it is often only necessary to inherit autotools.bbclass, define SRC_URI, and sometimes define do_patch in the .bb file. All BitBake classes inherit from base.bbclass, where the default implementations for most tasks are defined.


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Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Kundun is a 1997 film by Martin Scorsese about Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.
This film article is a stub. You can help Wikiquote by expanding it. |
Dalai Lama[edit]
- I will liberate those not liberated. I will release those not released. I will relieve those unrelieved, and set living beings in nirvana. ... Thus by the virtue that has collected through all that I have done may the pain of every living creature be completely cleared away.
- A brief version of the Bodhisattva vows.
- They have taken away our silence.
- Upon hearing the propaganda loudspeakers blaring outside the palace monastery.
- I see a safe journey, I see a safe return.
Mao Zedong[edit]
- Religion is poison.
- Indian border guard: Are you the Lord Buddha?
- Dalai Lama: I believe I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself.


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(No version information available, might be only in CVS)
ImagickPixel::__construct — The ImagickPixel constructor
This function is currently not documented; only its argument list is available.
Constructs an ImagickPixel object. If a color is specified, the object is constructed and then initialised with that color before being returned.
The optional color string to use as the initial value of this object.
Returns an ImagickPixel object on success, throwing ImagickPixelException on failure.


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About the Movie
Jenna Hudson (Bethany Joy Lenz, "Colony") and Kevin Jenner (Andrew Walker, "A Bride for Christmas") are polar opposites, working for the same online publication in New York City. With both having nowhere they want to be for Christmas, they volunteer for a special writing assignment. After a snowstorm forces their plane to land in none other than Santa Claus, Indiana, the two are placed in a Christmas Wonderland and the focus of their story shifts to saving the historic town inn run by Carol and Christopher Winters. As the two overcome their differences, they also rediscover the magic of Christmas. But with the inn's fate in jeopardy and the return of someone from Jenna's past, Carol and Christopher lend a helping hand to bring Jenna and Kevin together. The film also stars Tasha Smith. "Snowed-Inn Christmas" is produced by Juliette Hagopian and is executive produced by Howard Braunstein. Gary Yates serves as a director; Carly Smale serves as the writer.


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I'm creating a silly anthropomorphic router by heavily modifying a product image of a Linksys router. Here's a preview.
I want to incorporate a starburst effect into the background by creating a layer with a linear white-to-transparent gradient, applying Wave and finishing with Polar Coordinates. Here's what my first attempt looks like:
As you can see, there's an unwanted artifact going from the center to the top of the layer. I'm assuming this is because the output from the Wave filter didn't tile horizontally. Is there a smart way to adjust the settings of the Wave effect so that I don't have to fix it up manually? I'm using Photoshop Elements 10.


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Christopher Hedges, author of Empire of Illusion
Pulitzer Prize winner, Christopher Hedges, whose weekly Truthdig column is published every Monday, is currently a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. He spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. Hedges, who has reported from more than 50 countries, worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times. His book, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle is his latest publication.


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John Deere Reveals Final Tier 4/Stage IV Engine Technology Path
In its quest to meet Tier 4 and Stage IV emissions regulations, John Deere has announced the continuation of its planned building-block approach to compliance. Final Tier 4/Stage IV regulations for off-highway diesel engines begin as early as 2013 for engines 55 kW (74 hp) and below. Regulatory dates for engines 56 kW (75 hp) and above will be implemented in stages starting in 2014 and 2015, and require particulate matter (PM) levels established by Interim Tier 4/Stage III B regulations to be maintained while requiring an additional 80 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides (NOx) from previous regulations.
To meet Final Tier 4/Stage IV emissions regulations in some power categories, John Deere developed the Integrated Emissions Control system — an optimized aftertreatment solution paired with the performance-enhanced, fuel-efficient Interim Tier 4/Stage III B engine platform, featuring proven cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The John Deere Integrated Emissions Control system will typically consist of a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC), diesel particulate filter (DPF) and a selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system specifically designed to meet the rigorous demands of off-highway applications. John Deere will continue to tailor its Integrated Emissions Control system configurations to fit a variety of off-highway applications.
"At John Deere, we continue to offer the right combination of technologies at the right time to meet increasingly stringent emissions regulations and customer needs," said John Piasecki, director of worldwide marketing, sales and customer support for John Deere Power Systems. "Exhaustive research and testing determined that an application-specific SCR system that is well integrated with our proven Interim Tier 4/Stage III B engine platform will be the best solution to achieve Final Tier 4/Stage IV emissions compliance while delivering the power, performance, ease of operation, fluid efficiency, reliability and economical operating cost that our customers expect from John Deere."
Consisting of an exhaust filter and SCR aftertreatment components that are optimized and fully integrated, the Integrated Emissions Control system will allow John Deere engines to utilize less diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) than alternative Interim Tier 4/Stage III B SCR technology solutions. Lower DEF consumption means DEF tank size can be smaller — minimizing the impact on vehicle applications, extending DEF filter service intervals and reducing operator involvement. Monitored and controlled by proprietary electronics within the John
Deere enhanced engine control unit (ECU), the Integrated Emissions Control system also provides outstanding fluid efficiency without sacrificing overall performance.
Like the John Deere approach to previous tiers, its Final Tier 4/Stage IV technology solution has been designed to consider overall performance and operating efficiency, which takes into account total fluid consumption including diesel fuel and additional fluids such as diesel exhaust fluid (DEF). John Deere Final Tier 4/Stage IV engines will operate efficiently with traditional ultra lowsulfur diesel as well as biodiesel 5 to 20 percent (B5-B20) blends meeting applicable ASTM standards, providing optimal performance and fuel choice flexibility.
John Deere is one of the few manufacturers dedicated to providing efficient power to meet the needs and rigors of off-highway applications. Designing engines for OEM applications and their own construction, forestry and agricultural machines provides John Deere with unique expertise in integrating the engine into the rest of the vehicle, including the drivetrain, hydraulics, electronic control unit (ECU), cooling package and other vehicle systems for optimized efficiency. This integrated process will benefit John Deere machine owners and OEM customers by maximizing performance, operator convenience, fluid economy and overall value.
For more information on the John Deere Final Tier 4/Stage IV engine technology, visit www.JohnDeere.com/tier4.


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Mills & Boon publishes colouring-in book
The Art of Romance is intended as a celebration of over 100 years of the publisher's most iconic covers ranging from the austere war years, the birth of a royal baby, the swinging sixties and even the rise of the rom-com in the noughties.
The book features 47 illustrations for readers to colour in - with year-by-year facts, quotes and memories giving social history and context printed alongside each one.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdMills & Boon's book launches as a wave of adult colouring books continues to sweep the UK with experts citing the art of colouring in as a great way to exercise mindfulness and de-stress.
Publisher Lisa Milton said: "Colouring is a wonderful way to relax and be creative; there's something very nostalgic and comforting about it.
"The Art of Romance takes you on a fantastic journey back in time, remembering what romance was like when your grandparents met or even when you had your first kiss! With Mills & Boon's beautiful artwork as inspiration, it is a wonderful way to unwind."


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Agency Information Collection Activities: Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, Form Number I-526; Revision of a Currently Approved Collection, 32261-32262 [2013-12678]
Download as PDFAgencies
[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 103 (Wednesday, May 29, 2013)] [Notices] [Pages 32261-32262] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2013-12678] ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services [OMB Control Number 1615-0026] Agency Information Collection Activities: Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur, Form Number I-526; Revision of a Currently Approved Collection ACTION: 30-Day Notice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will be submitting the following information collection request to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. The information collection notice was previously published in the Federal Register on November 30, 2012, at 77 FR 71432, allowing for a 60-day public comment period. USCIS did not receive any comments in connection with the 60-day notice. USCIS has incorporated the ability to file Form I-539 electronically within USCIS' Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS) in this information collection activity and has provided the ELIS on line screen shots for viewing and comment in e-Docket ID number USCIS-USCIS-2007-0021. DATES: The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comments. Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until June 28, 2013. This process is conducted in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.10. ADDRESSES: Written comments and/or suggestions regarding the item(s) contained in this notice, especially regarding the estimated public burden and associated response time, should be directed to DHS, and to the OMB USCIS Desk Officer. Comments may be submitted to: DHS, USCIS, Office of Policy and Strategy, Chief, Regulatory Coordination Division, 20 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20529-2140. Comments may also be submitted to DHS via email at email@example.com, to the OMB USCIS Desk Officer via facsimile at 202-395-5806 or via email at firstname.lastname@example.com and via the Federal eRulemaking Portal Web site at https://www.Regulations.gov under e-Docket ID number USCIS- USCIS-2007-0021. When submitting comments by email, please make sure to add OMB Control Number 1615-0026 in the subject box. All submissions received must include the agency name, OMB Control Number and Docket ID. Regardless of the method used for submitting comments or material, all submissions will be posted, without change, to the Federal eRulemaking Portal at https://www.regulations.gov, and will include any personal information you provide. Therefore, submitting this information makes it public. You may wish to consider limiting the amount of personal information that you provide in any voluntary submission you make to DHS. For additional information please read the Privacy Act notice that is available via the link in the footer of https://www.regulations.gov. Note: The address listed in this notice should only be used to submit comments concerning this information collection. Please do not submit requests for individual case status inquiries to this address. If you are seeking information about the status of your individual case, please check ``My Case Status'' online at: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/dashboard.do, or call the USCIS National Customer Service Center at 1-800-375-5283. Written comments and suggestions from the public and affected agencies should address one or more of the following four points: (1) Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, including whether the information will have practical utility; (2) Evaluate the accuracy of the agencies estimate of the burden of the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the methodology and assumptions used; (3) Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic submission of responses. Overview of this Information Collection (1) Type of Information Collection Request: Revision of a currently approved information collection. [[Page 32262]] (2) Title of the Form/Collection: Immigrant Petition by Alien Entrepreneur. (3) Agency form number, if any, and the applicable component of the DHS sponsoring the collection: USCIS Form I-526; USCIS. (4) Affected public who will be asked or required to respond, as well as a brief abstract: Primary: Individuals or households. Form I- 526 is used by the USCIS to determine if an alien can enter the U.S. to engage in commercial enterprise. (5) An estimate of the total number of respondents and the amount of time estimated for an average respondent to respond: 807 responses at 1 hour and 20 minutes (1.33 hours) per response for paper filers, and 7,263 responses at 1 hour and 15 minutes (1.25 hours) per response for electronic filers. (6) An estimate of the total public burden (in hours) associated with the collection: 10,151 annual burden hours. If you need a copy of the information collection instrument with supplementary documents, or need additional information, please visit https://www.regulations.gov. We may also be contacted at: USCIS, Office of Policy and Strategy, Regulatory Coordination Division, 20 Massachusetts Avenue NW., Washington, DC 20529-2140; Telephone 202-272- 8377. Dated: May 23, 2013. Laura Dawkins, Chief, Regulatory Coordination Division, Office of Policy and Strategy, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Department of Homeland Security. [FR Doc. 2013-12678 Filed 5-28-13; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 9111-97-P
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Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul is a popular candidate among many Christians, including some theonomists. But is he someone Christians should vote for? Here we provide some food for thought.
To begin, we'll analyze the following "Freedom Principles" on Ron Paul's website:
- Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
- Property should be owned by people, not government.
- All voluntary associations should be permissible -- economic and social.
- The government's monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary unit, not participate in fraud.
- Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.
- The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government's.[1]
As a theonomist we find some here to agree with. Much of this is a rightful rejection of the unbiblical notion of socialism. But there are also serious defects that should trouble any Christian. Consider, for example, the following statements: "All voluntary associations should be permissible -- economic and social," and "The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government's."
"[I'm] not as judgmental about that probably because of my medical background. I don't see it in [such] simplistic terms. I think it's a complex issue to think it's a sin or other problems with the way people are born. It's too complex to give an answer as simple as that [that homosexuality is a sin.]"[2]
Sure. They can do whatever they want, and they can call it whatever they want, just so they don't expect to impose their relationship on somebody else. They can't make me, personally, accept what they do, but gay couples can do what they want.[3]True to his libertarian philosophy, Paul also condones political polytheism (the open practice of non-Christian religions), as we see in his comments from last May's South Carolina Republican Debate. When asked why social conservatives in South Carolina should vote for him, Paul said,
My defense of liberty is the defense of their right to practice their religion and say their prayers where they want and practice their life. But if, if you do not protect liberty across the board--it's a First Amendment-type issue. We don't have a First Amendment so that we can talk about the weather. We have the First Amendment so we can say very controversial things. So, for people to say that, "yes, we have our religious beliefs protected," but people who want to follow something else, or a controversial religion, "you can't do this." If you have the inconsistency, then you are really not defending liberty. ... You have a right to do things that are very controversial.[4]Regarding political polytheism, we must note that the Bible does not praise civil rulers for allowing for this, but it does praise civil rulers for opposing it. Consider the godly kings of Judah, who staunchly opposed the libertarian polytheism of their day. To tolerate false gods is to advocate "deity egalitarianism" and thus to deny God's superiority to false gods--and with it deny God's justice in the civil realm.
Keeping this mind, note that one of Paul's freedom principles states: "Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges."
While there is truth in this, conspicuously absent from this statement is God. Contrary to libertarianism, and all other forms of humanism, civil government exists to answer to God—as an avenger of His wrath, to terrorize and kill evildoers (naturally, evildoers guilty of crimes against biblical civil law):
For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. (Romans 13: 3, 4)
"Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." (Psalm 2:10-12).
For us to take Ron Paul more seriously as a candidate, his platform
would have to be more biblical, and less libertarian; more like Moses,
and less like Mises. (Mises photo credit: Ludwig von Mises Institute/CC BY -SA 3.0)
The libertarian advocacy of political polytheism is hostile to Christ's political office. In allowing the open worship of false gods (which allows for anti-Christian allegiances), libertarianism works to subvert the recognition of Christ's political authority and to elevate the authority of Christ's political rivals.
Back to Ron Paul. While pro-life, Paul's stance against abortion is somewhat weak. While in biblical law murder (such as abortion) is always a capital offense (Numbers 35:31), Paul said in his interview with John Lofton that he didn't have the wisdom to discern how abortionists should be punished.[5]
Ron Paul does rightfully say in the interview that "Defiance of God's Law will eventually bring havoc to a society."[6] But the question must be asked: is much of his own civil platform in defiance of God's law? If so, then we would be wise to avoid voting for him, as his very platform could contribute to havoc being brought on our society.
In fairness, Paul's statement of faith makes the following admirable statements:
We must pass on our heritage of liberty to the next generation – not tens of trillions of dollars in debt and liabilities.
We must stand for life – not allow millions of innocent children to continue to be slaughtered with the government's approval.
We must follow the Biblical mandate of using honest weights and measures – not printing money out of thin air in almost complete secrecy and then handing it over to oppressive dictators.
... Once war is declared, it must be waged according to Just War principles. We should only fight when it's in our national security interest, and we should no longer do the corrupt United Nation's bidding by policing the world.Ron Paul unapologetically stands against the socialist state and the warfare state. Moreover, Paul unashamedly parts from atheist libertarians (and thereby risks alienating potential voters) by opposing abortion and basing the need for honest weights and measures on the Bible. But his overall libertarian philosophy works to undermine his biblical positions.
Personally, we like Ron Paul much better than the typical presidential candidate. And we do not question his Christianity. (Although his waffling on whether sodomy is a sin is very disturbing.) However, this is not just about likability and being a Christian (as important as these things are). This is about how much Paul's views align with biblical law.
Again, let's be fair: some of his views are biblical, especially in economics, certain matters of small government, and, to a certain extent, abortion. But Paul's condoning of polytheism and sexual immorality, and softness on punishing abortionists, are not attributes of a competent civil ruler.
Now, if Paul begins emphasizing the Lordship of Christ and cleans up his platform to become more consistently biblical (although we don't expect perfection)--then we might start taking him more seriously as a candidate. (Although we would also like to know if he qualifies as a ruler in other areas, e.g., does he have an orthodox view of the Gospel?)
While he is pretty solid on small government and economics, these issues are not enough. Paul needs to look more like Moses, and less like Mises; more like Hezekiah, and less like Hayek. As we see from the godly kings of Judah, biblical reform begins not with individual rights, but God's rights.
Libertarianism's man-centeredness, then, by the nature of the case, is hostile to a God-centered social order. This, by the way, speaks to the irony of Ron Paul supporters who claim to be theonomists: theonomists acknowledge that when it comes to law, it is either theonomy (God's law) or autonomy (man's law, or really, man's lawlesness). And yet, libertarianism is about as autonomous as it gets.
If they justify supporting Paul on the basis that some of his platform is theonomic (e.g., his economics), then one can justify supporting just about any candidate with a partially theonomic platform. One could even justify supporting big-government neo-cons, who may be even stronger against sodomy and abortion than Paul is.
Of course, what politicians don't conform some of their platform to theonomy? All non-Christian philosophies wind up borrowing from the Christian worldview to some extent or another. But that doesn't make their philosophy Christian.
(Granted, there are those who pragmatically advocate Paul on the basis that he is the best candidate, and he at least has a shot at winning. But as we have already noted elsewhere, political pragmatism doesn't work ...)
[3] John Stossel, Live and Let Live, Says One Candidate (Townhall.com, January 9, 2008). Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2008/01/09/live_and_let_live,_says_one_candidate.
[4] RonPaulSource, Ron Paul on legalizing drugs and gay marriage - SC Republican debate 5/5/2011 (YouTube, uploaded May 5, 2011). Retrieved August 30, 2011, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws7Zp41fByE.
[5] Lofton, Excerpts From Our Exclusive Ron Paul Interview
[6] Ibid.


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By William Benker
Seven Samurai – 1954 – dir. Akira Kurosawa
The philosophical insight Akira Kurosawa unleashes in his epic Seven Samurai stands above most war films ever produced. Though the portrayal of war is common among films, the true essence of conflict itself is often times overlooked. The manner and tempo with which Kurosawa delivers his epic is where the message emerges. With a steady pace and extensive view into every facet of struggle, the director breaches the threshold of cinematic philosophy into a new realm of artistic meaning. In 16th century Japan, the framework of conflict is embodied within seven selfless warriors who use all of their abilities to defeat a clan of bandits. Kurosawa's stark vision of life itself is extrapolated in the picture. Constantly put into question by smaller battles along the way, the director paints a decadent landscape of morality, giving audiences the very essence of cinema and story in its most ancient form. Seven Samurai is a perfect step-by-step guide into the very heart of conflict.


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February 13, 2013: About 2,500 of the 5,000 African peacekeepers have arrived and the rest will be in Mali by the end of the month. France is still planning to withdraw most of its 4,000 troops by the end of March. The arriving African force was organized by ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) and supported by the UN and Western nations. The Mali government (led by men approved by a group of rebellious army officers) is opposed to a UN led peacekeeping force in Mali. That's because the UN is hostile to the Mali Army control over the government. The army has agreed to new elections, but that is thought to be mainly because the UN was withholding over $300 million in economic aid until the army agreed to new elections.
The problem between the army and the politicians is corruption. Mali has held a lot of elections but those elected always turn out to be corrupt and inept. Junior army officers staged their first coup 11 months ago, as al Qaeda and Tuareg tribal rebels were seizing control of the north. The UN and ECOWAS forced the army to accept a civilian government in April if there was to be help in regaining control of the north. But last December the army forced out the caretaker (until elections) civilian officials and replaced them with pro-army civilians. The army wants to run the country until honest candidates can be found for a civilian government. This sort of thing rarely works, as the entire government is corrupt and just changing a few people at the top does not solve that. The army ends up joining in with the corrupt practices and so it goes. The elections are scheduled for July 31st.
Most al Qaeda (up to 2,000 armed men) have fled for the Adrar des Ifoghas, a 250,000 square kilometers mountainous plateau near the Algerian border. Long dominated by Tuareg tribes, al Qaeda has maintained bases up there for years. In the last week French warplanes have bombed at least two dozen al Qaeda bases in those hills. Al Qaeda activity in this area has been mapped with reconnaissance aircraft and satellites and some troops on the ground. Several hundred Chadian troops have been sent into this area. The Chad soldiers are experienced at fighting in this kind of terrain and have some French troops (to handle calling in smart bombs) and Mali Tuaregs (as guides, negotiators, and translators) along. While many civilians in the Adrar des Ifoghas are hostile to the Mali government and depend on al Qaeda for cash (obtained from kidnapping ransoms and drug smuggling), they are also angry at the way al Qaeda forced Tuareg rebels out of the northern Mali cities last June. The Chadian troops hope to avoid fighting the locals and concentrate on scattering the al Qaeda men into the desert, where they can be more easily attacked from the air. The Islamic terrorists know how the French smart bombs work and will likely fight to the death in their village bases.
There are apparently already small groups of French commandos in the Adrar des Ifoghas. These men are there to get a better idea of how well al Qaeda survived their retreat north. French warplanes found and bombed some of those convoys (of cars, pickups, and trucks) that brought the Islamic radicals from cities like Gao, Kidal, and and Timbuktu to mountain refuges near the Algerian border. This journey took up to ten hours, with the vehicles visible from the air on desert roads. Hundreds of terrorists were believed killed on those few roads by French warplanes. The French commandos are seeking to find out what shape the survivors are in and how many of them are up in the hills.
February 11, 2013: Al Qaeda called for an international holy war against France and other non-Moslem nations for sending troops into northern Mali to drive out al Qaeda forces that had controlled most of the area for the last eight months. Al Qaeda is particularly eager to get Moslems in the West to help out. France recently arrested four African Moslems in France who were plotting to send aid to al Qaeda in Mali.
French and Malian troops searched the city of Gao for any more al Qaeda fighters after weekend violence involving a group of al Qaeda gunmen who got into the city and seized the police headquarters building (which al Qaeda had used as a headquarters until recently). These attackers apparently came from Niger (and paddled across the Niger River) and from among Malian al Qaeda sympathizers who lived in the city and were able to remain behind when most of the al Qaeda men (most are foreigners) fled the city.
February 10, 2013: About twenty al Qaeda men, aided by local sympathizers who had a hidden stocks of weapons, got into Gao and occupied the police headquarters. They were surrounded by French troops and killed after several hours of shooting. Many Malian al Qaeda come from Gao. The al Qaeda men who occupied Gao for ten months belonged to MUJAO. There are three different Islamic radical groups in the north. Ansar Dine (which controlled Timbuktu) is from Mali and led by Tuareg Islamic radicals. MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) controlled Gao and is from neighboring Mauritania. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has members from all over North Africa but mostly from Algeria. MUJAO is basically a Mauritanian faction of AQIM and there is some tension between the two groups. AQIM has the most money and weapons and uses this to exercise some control over the other two radical groups (who outnumber AQIM in Mali). Both these groups are sometimes at odds with Ansar Dine, which felt it should be in charge because it is Malian. Until a few months ago all three groups cooperated in order to maintain their control of the north. Then Ansar Dine began negotiating with the Mali government for a separate peace and some kind of compromise over Tuareg autonomy in the north. In part this was because MUJAO and AQIM were bringing in reinforcements from Morocco, Western Sahara, Algeria, Pakistan, Egypt, Yemen, Nigeria, and Sudan and threatened to reduce the area Ansar Dine controls. Ansar Dine sees itself as the only Mali group in the Islamic radical government up north and is determined to defend Tuareg interests against the many foreigners in MUJAO (which has many Malian members) and especially AQIM (which wants to run everything). Ansar Dine sees AQIM as a bunch of gangsters, dependent on its relationship with drug gangs (al Qaeda moves the drugs north to the Mediterranean coast) and kidnappers (who hold Europeans for multi-million dollar ransoms). All this cash gives AQIM a lot of power, both to buy weapons and hire locals. With the high unemployment in the north and the image as Islamic warriors, working for AQIM was an attractive prospect for many young men. Most of those new recruits deserted as their employers fled the advancing French. Some Tuareg factions have made peace with the Mali government and are cooperating in the hunt for al Qaeda fighters. But other Tuareg factions have not decided yet, even as they are threatened with smart bomb attacks if they make a move against the pro-government forces that have taken back control of the north. If the government can negotiate an autonomy deal with the Tuaregs in the north, that will go a long way towards making the area more hostile for al Qaeda. But it's not certain that such a deal will be made.
February 9, 2013: Outside of Gao, an Arab suicide bomber attacked Malian soldiers at a roadblock. Only the bomber was killed and several soldiers wounded. Malian troops panicked and some left their guard posts around Gao for a while. Malian troops did arrest two local men who were found to be carrying explosives.
February 8, 2013: In the north French and Malian troops captured the oasis town of Tessalit, which is 70 kilometers from the Algerian border and in the Adrar des Ifoghas. It is one of the larger towns in the area with a population of about 5,000. The French troops parachuted in and seized the small airport. Malian troops, supplies, and vehicles were then flown in. A small force of French troops, with some wheeled armored vehicles, drove in from the south as well.
In the capital army troops were ordered to surround the base of the paratroop regiment. This unit is still loyal to the elected president, who was removed from power by the army last year. This was the second coup in a year and the paratroopers did not support it. The paratroopers had been ordered north to fight the Islamic terrorists but wanted to go as a unit, not piecemeal. The paratroopers feared that the coup leaders would have them arrested if they went north in smaller numbers. Negotiations between paratroop and coup leaders settled the dispute before it could escalate into a major battle.
In Gao a suicide bomber attacked an army checkpoint, killing only himself.
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Crown International unveiled the all new I-Tech Series at the Winter NAMM trade show in Anaheim. Crown positions I-Tech as their new flagship amplifier series for the touring and corporate PA markets.
I-Tech is truly the world's most advanced power amplifier...
Stephen Morris, Crown Market Director
"I-Tech is truly the world's most advanced power amplifier," said Stephen Morris, Market Director for Touring Sound, Installed Sound and Cinema markets at Crown. "It represents the pinnacle of Crown's 50 years of leadership, incorporating our latest power supply, output stage and digital technologies. Crown packed more sophisticated features, protection, performance and value into I-Tech than has ever been assembled into one amplifier. With I-Tech, choosing a touring amplifier no longer has to involve making a series of compromises." I-Tech packs a lot of power into a small, lightweight package, with all models being 2RU and weighing less than 28 lbs. (12.7 kg.). I-Tech is built for the road, with a rugged chassis designed to withstand abuse. I-Tech features Crown's proven, patented Class-I switching output design to deliver massive amounts of power while generating a fraction of the heat of conventional designs. Crown's global regulated power supply delivers full power regardless of AC mains voltage: from 120 to 277 volts, and from 50 to 60 Hz. Power Factor Correction (PFC) allows I-Tech to draw current from the mains more efficiently, providing more power from a single 20 amp breaker. The Class-I output and advanced power supply combine to allow I-Tech to provide the highest output voltage available, for a clearly audible difference when driving today's high-performance loudspeakers.
An intuitive front panel work surface with LCD display provides fast and easy menu-based system setup and full amplifier diagnostics. AES/EBU digital audio inputs are standard, along with balanced analog XLR inputs and passive-through outputs. Crown plans to soon announce availability of integrated CobraNet™ digital audio inputs as an option. Integrated studio-grade DSP with 24 bit / 96kHz converters allow custom settings and factory-designed tunings to be easily loaded and recalled via onboard presets.
I-Tech amplifiers connect directly to IQ Networks, providing Crown's legendary IQ control over industry-standard Ethernet network technology. Using mature, off-the-shelf networking technology, Crown's TCP/IQ protocol ensures reliable, easy to implement and inexpensive network operation. By connecting I-Tech to an IQ Network and running the free IQwic software application, all amplifier controls can be accessed, and vital amplifier operating parameters monitored, from a remote location. Multiple levels of security are available to prevent unauthorized adjustment of system settings.
Minimum guaranteed power ratings are as follows:
Power per channel with all channels driven:
I-T4000: 1,800W at 2 Ohms; 2,000W at 4 Ohms; 1,250W at 8 Ohms.
I-T6000: 2,500W at 2 Ohms; 3,000W at 4 Ohms; 1,500W at 8 Ohms.
I-T8000: 3,500W at 2 Ohms; 4,000W at 4 Ohms; 2,100W at 8 Ohms.
Like all Crown amplifiers, I-Tech Series products are backed by the manufacturer's industry-exclusive Three-Year, No-Fault, Fully Transferable Warranty. Crown International, a Harman International company, manufactures amplifiers, microphones, and systems control products for professional audio markets worldwide, with corporate headquarters located in Elkhart, Indiana. For more information, please visit Crown online at www.crownaudio.com.


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
Well, I guess it didn't make it to the beta. . If anyone wants this skin let me know and I will host it for you. Thanks.-Dustin
DUDE! it didn't make it to the beta because you didn't work with us to fold it in!


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Wyden: American Families, Consumers Deserve Answers About Impacts of U.S. Crude Oil Exports
Washington, D.C. –Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., promised to make sure impacts on American employers, consumers and families are at the forefront of any discussion about exporting crude oil, in a hearing today.
"Simply charging forward and hoping for the best is not the way you get the best policy decisions. The responsibility of our committee is to make sure consumers will not get hammered by the cost of gas going up because of some theory that everything is just going to turn out hunky dory in the end," Wyden said.
The United States has restricted exports of crude oil since the Arab oil embargo of 1973.
Wyden, a supporter of expanded international trade, and chairman of the Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, said he has not taken a position on whether the United States should expand exports of crude oil. However, he highlighted the need to address unanswered questions about how the prices of gasoline, heating oil and other crucial products would be affected by allowing unlimited crude exports.
"American families and American businesses deserve to know what exports would mean for their specific needs when they fill up at the pump, or get their delivery of heating oil," Wyden said.
An archived video the hearing is available at the committee website.


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Last week, you shared in the comments some of those "Bedlam" Holiday moments, and it was so fun to read, chuckle and commiserate.
It was just what I needed to know we were all in this together, but little did I know I was setting myself up for a similar moment. We always take our traditional jaunt to the NC mountains with my side of the family Wednesday through Friday. We eat our Thanksgiving meal at a restaurant, but then come back and prepare our own traditional meal on Saturday.
Being the proactive family manager that I am, I took the turkey out of the deep freeze a full FOUR days before it was to be cooked, and placed it in our refrigerator while we were gone. I was even more proud that I actually remembered to take it from the outside fridge on Friday at 11:00pm upon our arrival home. My son brought it into the house, set it down on the counter, and it made a rock like thud. Surely, he had brought in the wrong turkey (since I bought two, of course, at those rock bottom prices)? Nope, it was THEE turkey that I was supposed to brine all night long, and then bake first thing Saturday morning. Solid as a rock after FOUR days in the fridge. What's with that? I soaked it in water all night, and it was still partially frozen in the morning. So much for the nice marinade that I had prepared (in my mind.) ARG! Eventually, it thawed. (Although I do admit it was just a tad icy when it went in the oven). Definitely not the juiciest turkey ever baked, but the flavor was delicious, and it's amazing the multitude of mistakes that an amazing gravy can cover. (Mine did just that.)
The beauty of that small moment of panic on Friday evening, was that it just didn't matter. Truly, I remembered some of these stories. I remembered my own words, and realized that turkey or no turkey, the time gathered as a family was what was etched in our minds and hearts.
I don't know about you, but I feel like I need a few weeks to inhale before heading into Christmas. I haven't even thought of getting the Christmas decorations down from the attic, and yet that needs to be on the "to do" list this week.
Couldn't the Pilgrims have timed their arrival a little earlier in the season? (ha…I jest…really.)
I need a little pep talk about swapping out the fall decor for my Christmas items. (Now the shopping? I have that covered. For the first time ever, I am doing almost all of it on-line, and it's delightful.)
I know seeing all your recipes will get me in the holiday mood. I can't wait to take some time to browse your inspirations.
Simple Rules for Tasty Tuesday Parade of Foods – If you're joining in with a recipe link, two simple requests. As always, please link directly to your recipe post and not your blog URL, so that everyone can find the recipe months from now.
Also, please link back to my site so that everyone can join in the fun. I don't ask much in order to participate, but many of you are not linking back, and it's just common courtesy of blog carnivals.